california redwood/ giant sequoia?

avidgardener25August 5, 2014

Hi everyone!

Im a bit new to this neck of the woods since im usually found with the chili-heads in the hot pepper forum. I just also found another little garden hobby with training trees such as bonsai and I was wondering if anyone knew that whether or not these seeds are typically sold at nurseries? im in southern ms and my closest nursery is 25 miles away...

You can get seeds for either from Sheffield's, and several mail-order nurseries selld the trees, but only the Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) would be acceptable in Mississippi. The Giant Sequoia will die from a fungal infection probably almost immediately - does not do well with heat + humidity.

Another recommendation, which is deciduous, but is a "redwood" is Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, which should do OK in Southern MS since I have seen people say it does well in Houston, which should be a similar climate.

other "redwood" relatives include the deciduous native baldcypress (taxodium distichum) and the evergreen "japanese cedar" cryptomeria japonica---both probably available as plants from nurseries in your area or mail-order nurseries like forestfarm (among others).

Bald Cypress, Coast Redwood, and Dawn Red are all readily available in eBay as seedlings and larger size, though I do not think this is the best time of year to order them as they usually come bare rooted. That's where I got all mine. Do not know how they do as bonsai specimens though. I would check into that first. As normal containerized trees, they are easy though. P.S., this DR in the photo originally came in the mail a few years ago. This picture was last year, now it's twice as big!